Saints collapse, lose fifth straight
Saints fall in overtime at Saint Peter’s but still earn first-round bye
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — In a painfully familiar pattern, the Siena men’s basketball team self-destructed again down the stretch on Saturday. This time, it was in the regular-season finale at Saint Peter’s.
The Saints have run out of opportunities to get it right before the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament. They’ll head down to Atlantic City on a five-game losing streak after an excruciating 73-72 overtime loss to the Peacocks at Run Baby Run Arena.
Siena (17-14 overall, 11-9 MAAC) had a 67-60 lead over Saint Peter’s before going scoreless for the final 3:04 of regulation. Two days earlier, the Saints managed only one point in the final four minutes of a one-point home loss to Manhattan.
“I don’t know if guys are ready for the moment,” Siena head coach Carmen Maciariello said. “Everything we ran late is stuff we’ve run all the time … We’ve got guys that are deferring. They’re on the floor because we believe in them. That’s been our Achilles heel, and not being able to grow leads.”
Siena still got help. While their game was in progress, the Saints earned a tournament first-round bye when Manhattan lost at home to Mount St. Mary’s.
Siena will play Thursday in a MAAC quarterfinal at Boardwalk Hall. The Saints will be either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed, determined by Quinnipiac’s late game at Marist on Saturday night.
On Saturday, Saint Peter’s guard Jaylen Murray hit a 3pointer with 0.2 seconds left after an offensive rebound to send the game into overtime. Siena shot 0-for-7 from the field in the overtime period.
“They take away our key players sometimes, so others got to be willing to step up and score the basketball, be more aggressive,” Siena sophomore guard Javian McCollum (22 points, five turnovers) said. “Make the other team guard us.”
Siena still had a chance to win after Saint Peter’s fifth-year guard Isiah Dasher, a Jersey City native, made two foul shots for a 72-71 lead with 27.9 seconds left in overtime.
After calling a timeout, Maciariello drew up a play for
freshman forward Killian Gribben to get the ball in the high post with graduate forward Jackson Stormo down low.
“He (Gribben) has got a nice (shooting) touch and I thought if they helped up, then he’d have a dump-down (pass) to Stormo for an easy layup,” Maciariello said.
But neither happened. Gribben and McCollum, a secondary option on the play, passed the ball back and forth as the clock ran down. Finally, Gribben gave it to freshman Michael Eley, who missed a deep 3-pointer from the left side as time expired.
“Our problem is we need to lock in and play our game toward the end of the game, too,” said Eley, who had 11 points in his first college start. “We start off good, and then toward the end of the game, we kind of lose control and people don’t know what they’re doing.”
Saint Peter’s (12-17, 7-13) had 19 offensive rebounds, including one by Peacocks guard Latrell Reid after Kyle Cardaci missed a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation. Reid ran down the rebound in the paint and passed out to Murray for the tying 3.
Maciariello explained that, up three points, he didn’t want to foul on purpose before Cardaci’s 3-point attempt because too much time remained. He said he wanted a foul on the rebound, but “obviously, we didn’t do that.”
Then Dasher made the tying and winning foul shot in overtime after grabbing an offensive rebound and being fouled by Gribben.
“Nineteen offensive rebounds — that was the game, regardless of any strategy,” Maciariello said.
Maciariello said he told the players after the game the losses are his fault and they can take credit for the wins. Whoever is to blame, the Saints need to get it turned around quickly or their season will be over Thursday.
“We’ve just got to keep the guys uplifted, the young guys and hopefully when we go to Atlantic (City), everyone will be ready,” McCollum said. “We don’t have time to hang our heads because we play next week.”
Siena has lost 11 of its last 12 trips to Saint Peter’s.